Toy or puzzle



(No Model.)

- A. G. FARWELLV TOY 0R PUZZLE.

No. 437,186. Patented Sept. 30, 1890.

68 8. S\ E M. f

N, w M MM UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ARTHUR G. FARWELL, OF ST. PAUL, MINNESOTA.

TOY'OR PUZZLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 437,186, dated September 30, 1890.

Application filed May 20, 1889. Serial No. 311,492. (No model.)

K To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ARTHUR G. FARWELL, of the city of St. Paul, county of'Ramsey, State of Minnesota, have invented an Improvement in a Certain Toy or Puzzle, of

which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to furnish a novel and useful puzzle or toy, representing the switching of cars by a locomotive under certain condition hereinafter set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a plan of the puzzle or toy in question. Fig. 2 is a side view of the same. Fig. 3 is a view of the blocks, representing the cars and locomotive, with the slots cut therein. Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of said blocks.

0 Fig. 2, is the base-plate, which may be made of wood, card-board, sheet metal, or other suitable material.

D is a thin plate of the same size as C made of either wood, card-board, sheet metal, or other suitable material, slotted as shown in Fig. 1 by the letters H G J O K M, to represent railroad tracks and switches, having 2 5 the letters A B L marked thereon, as therein shown.

X X are pieces of Wood or other material for the purpose of raising the plate D to a suitable height above the base-plate G which 0 height will be regulated by the thickness of the foot'of the blocks A B L, hereinafter described.

A B L are oblong pieces of wood or other suitable material slotted on their sides, as

55 shown in Figs. 3 and 4, so as to work freely in the tracks in the plate D, the grooves in A B L engaging with the slotted tracks, so that While said blocks A B L can slide in said tracks they cannot become detached from the 0 same and get lost or misplaced. The length of A and B will be that of the tail of the Y or the distance from K to G in Fig. 1. The block L will be somewhat longer than A or B.

The dotted lines on Fig. 1 represent the position of the underlying strips X X.

The puzzle or toy is operated as follows: The blocks A B L are placed at the points A B L, respectively. The object is, by the use of the locomotive L, to transpose or interchange the positions of A B L, bringing each block to any desired position, it being under stood that G K, the tail of the Y, is long enough to hold one car and no more and too short to hold the locomotive. Further, that the cars can only be moved when the locomotive is attached to them, and that what are commonly called flying switches are not to be employed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,

The combination, in a toy or puzzle, of the two equal-sized blocks A B, the larger block L, the supports X, the base-plate G and the top plate D, said plate D having a longitudinal slot in the same and having a similar Y- shaped slot superimposed thereon, with the arms thereof communicating with said longitudinal slot, the tail of said Y-shaped slot, which is of the length of the block A or B and no longer, being at right angles with said longitudinal slot, all of said slots being made so as to permit the blocks A B L to travel in the guideways thus made, except that the block L cannot enter the tail of the Y-shaped slot, and by the use of said tracks the positions of said blocks A and B to be interchanged, substantially as shown and described.

ARTHUR G. FARWELL.

Witnesses:

ROBERT H. KIRK, Geo. L. FARWELL. 

